Policy Announcements, Wednesday 09 May

Government

• Grants to help climate-conscious householders to install microgeneration technologies will be up for grabs again later this month, Alistair Darling announced today. The Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) has already allocated £6.8m in grants to householders and, following the addition an extra £6m in the Budget, applications for the remaining £11.9m will be open from 29 May. Since it launched in April 2006 the LCBP has directly funded 2175 installations on homes. This includes 242 mini-turbines, 313 Solar PV projects and 1467 solar thermal heating systems.
• Twenty-five local highway authorities and their partners across England will share the first award of a new £4 million road safety grant, Dr Stephen Ladyman, Road Safety Minister, announced today. The Road Safety Partnership Grant Scheme will provide funding to local highway authorities who are taking an innovative and collaborative approach to improving road safety.
• US and UK companies need to face up to the realities of climate change and the risks that it poses to their long term interests, Environment and Climate Change Minister Ian Pearson will say today. Mr Pearson, addressing a meeting of US businesses in New York, will say that a business's vulnerability to the threats of climate change is of increasing concern to investors and shareholders. Companies need to respond to this to stay ahead of the game.
• The prime minister's final ministerial reshuffle has taken effect, with changes to three government departments. Lord Falconer, previously constitutional affairs secretary, becomes secretary of state for justice at the head of the Ministry of Justice. The MoJ is the new name for the Department of Constitutional Affairs, which will take on new criminal justice functions from the Home Office. Lord Falconer, who also remains lord chancellor, is joined by David Hanson, currently Northern Ireland Office minister, also becomes minister of state at the MoJ. Following the restoration of devolved government at Stormont on Tuesday, Hanson will not be replaced at the Northern Ireland Office. Neither will parliamentary undersecretary David Cairns, who previously held that post in both the Northern Ireland and Scotland, but is now "full time" at the Scotland office. Gerry Sutcliffe, previously parliamentary undersecretary at the Home Office responsible for probation, moves to the MoJ. Harriet Harman remains a minister of state in the MoJ, along with junior ministers Baroness Ashton of Upholland, Bridget Prentice and Vera Baird.

Conservatives

• A senior Conservative has offered the clearest indication yet of how the party will seek to tackle Gordon Brown. Alan Duncan said in a speech on Wednesday that the Tories will paint the chancellor as a "blast from the past" when he replaces Tony Blair, rather than allow him to be seen as a "fresh start". However the shadow trade and industry secretary warned that the new prime minister would be "a whirling dervish" of activity that was likely to hit support for David Cameron's party in the short term. But he called on the Conservatives to "keep our nerve" and stick to Cameron's modernising strategy as the best contrast to Brown's controlling reputation rather than panic into rushing out policies.